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day, maybe the next three days I won’t get food,even from my family. So my family is not supportingme either.ILRF: Do you know who was wearing the socks, afteryou made them?Lovely: I don’t have any idea. It might be, I could getsome idea, if I could have had a chance to work afew more days there.Interpreter: See, I can’t do interview [crying]ILRF: What do you think, maybe when you were 11 or10, what did you dream about, what did you want tobe when you grew up?Lovely: I wanted to study as much as I could, and geta good job and support my family, but my wish wasnever fulfilled. I couldn’t do that.ILRF: And so, it’s been maybe five years, right? Doyou still have health problems?Lovely: Many times I have been to the hospitalbecause it was hurting inside. Neither of my parentshad any money, so they borrowed money for mefrom my neighbors and they took me to the hospital.And, see, I cannot move my fingers, so it is alwayslike this. And after the fire, and the injury, I had tolearn, and it was very hard, I had to learn how to eatrice with these hands.others in your family who are still working in thegarment factories. And we are working very hardto try to make sure that no more fires happen inBangladesh.“My family members stillwork in the factory, but notonly for my family, but for allthose who are working in thefactory, on behalf of them, Iwant to say, please keep thefactory a safe place to work. Idon’t want to see anyone elselike me.”--Lovely, who suffered burns in the KTS TextileFactory fire, February 23, 2006, when she was only11 years oldILRF: Maybe people in your family work in thegarment factories, and there are still many unsafefactories. Do you have anything to say maybe to thepeople that run the factories, or that buy from thefactories?Lovely: My family members still work in the factory,but not only for my family, but for all those who areworking in the factory, on behalf of them, I want tosay, please keep the factory a safe place to work. Idon’t want to see anyone else like me.ILRF: Is there anything else you want to say?Lovely: I want to live a normal life, like other girls. ButI can’t do that.ILRF: Thank you very much for travelling all night onthe bus, and for sharing your story. We will shareyour story. We will make sure that people in othercountries know your story and the story of so manyDEADLY SECRETS7

Executive ---------------------------------“The fire alarm: Waved off bymanagers. An exit door: Locked. Thefire extinguishers: Not working andapparently ‘meant just to impress’inspectors and customers. That is thepicture survivors paint of the garmentfactory fire Saturday that killed 112people who were trapped inside orbetter conditions, workers and worker advocatescourageous enough to demand their rights oftenbecome targets of police and security forces. Theymay face arbitrary detentions, arrests and criminalproceedings on the basis of spurious charges, andthey sometimes endure beatings or threats to theirphysical safety. They are silenced.Meanwhile, the brands and retailers collectivelypossess thousands of confidential factory audits thatmay reveal workplace hazards and even imminentthreats to workers’ health and safety. But it seemsthey have chosen to cease business with factories tosafeguard their reputations and brand images ratherthan reveal their deadly secrets and tell workersabout the risks they face. They have kept theirsilence.jumped to their deaths in desperation.”---Associated Press report on the horrors of the fireat Tazreen Fashions, November 24, 2012. It wasBangladesh’s deadliest garment factory fire --------------------------------For many years the dirty secret of the steadilygrowing Bangladeshi garment industry has been itsunderpaid workers, treated as disposable objects.The lowest paid garment workers anywhere in theworld, hundreds of them have died in preventablefactory fires and building collapses during the lasttwo decades, and many more have been injured.After each tragedy, workers have demanded “nomore fires,” but they have not been heard. Brandsand retailers have conducted factory audits, butnot shared the results with government agenciesor workers even to tell them about imminentdangers. The audits are confidential, their ownprivate knowledge of workplace hazards and laborviolations.Herein lies the twin obstacles to a safe and secureworkplace for Bangladeshi garment workers:workers own voices are silenced and companieschoose not to talk openly about what they know.Although Bangladeshi law and codes of conductof global brands and retailers guarantee workers’rights to organize and bargain collectively forUp to this point, U.S. and European corporateinvestment in the Bangladeshi garment industryhas grown steadily over two decades despitewidespread unsafe workplaces. Bangladesh—at thebottom of the global economy in terms of workers’wages—has emerged as the number-two garmentexporter in the world after China. According to anindustry analysis, Bangladesh is expected to tripleits garment exports over the next ten years and maywell surpass China.2Yet, recent media and political attention to lowwages and unsafe conditions in the Bangladeshigarment industry has raised the possibility thatthe low-road path to industry growth has reachedits limit in Bangladesh. Brands have taken theunprecedented step of calling on the Bangladeshigovernment to raise wages for garment workers.3U.S. and European industry associations have openlyspeculated that Bangladeshi security forces may beresponsible for the recent murder of the Bangladeshilabor rights activist, Aminul Islam.4 Bangladeshimedia is abuzz with reports that CEOs of majorapparel brands worry that their own brands maybe tarnished by association with the Bangladeshi“brand,” threatening diminished investment if thelabor rights climate does not improve.5A shared sense of urgency about a growing crisisfor garment workers has created the possibility fora group of unusual allies to begin designing a wayforward in Bangladesh together. Two major apparelDEADLY SECRETS8

companies have recently agreed to join a newworker safety program with Bangladeshi andinternational unions and labor rights groups, theBangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement.The program, when widely accepted and fullyimplemented, may spell the end of the deadlysecrets in the industry. It calls for independentfactory inspections, transparent reporting, andgenuine worker participation in monitoring theirown safety. It includes mechanisms for financingfactory improvements. Unlike other corporatefire safety initiatives, this program is not voluntaryor charitable, but a legally binding agreement.Workers will have a means of holding companiesaccountable for workplace safety and obtainingreparation for wrongdoings.The Bangladesh Fire and Building SafetyAgreement may open a path of collaborationtowards better working conditions for Bangladeshigarment workers. But genuine collaborationrequires a new openness in the industry: acommitment to share knowledge that has beenhidden, and to listen to workers who have beenignored. Knowledge about workplace hazardscannot remain in private hands, but must be shared.Worker voices must be valued and respected, andworkers must be active participants in workplacedecisions that affect their livelihood, life, and death.Based on these principles of openness a broadrange of stakeholders who may not be used toworking together can make a determined joint effortthat will ultimately benefit all.Beyond BangladeshThe last word on this report had hardly been writtenbefore the world awoke to the devastating news ofat least 259 workers trapped and killed in a factoryfire on September 11, 2012.6 This fire was not inBangladesh, but in Pakistan, where textile andclothing exports make up about 58% of the country’stotal exports.7 Local trade unions have reported thatWomen mourning a garment worker who was killed in a fire at Ali Enterprises, Karachi, Pakistan, on September 11, 2012.Photo: Akhtar Soomro / ReutersDEADLY SECRETS9

the factory operated illegally, without the requiredregistration. When the fire broke out more than 600workers were trapped on the upper floors of thefour-story building with only one accessible exit.Most doors were locked, reportedly to prevent theft.8There were no fire exits.9 Windows were barred.Surviving workers reported that stairs and doorwayswere blocked with piles of finished merchandise.10On the same day, a shoe factory fire in Pakistankilled an additional 25 workers.11 Just one day afterthe fires in Pakistan, a fire in a Moscow sweatshopkilled 14 Vietnamese immigrants who were trappedbehind a door that was locked and barred with asledgehammer from the outside.12It turns out that garment factory fires have spreadfar beyond Bangladesh. While a global surveyis beyond the scope of this report, a glance atinternational media and reports of labor rights groupsfrom the last decade reveals substantial numbersof reported garment factory fires in several majorgarment producing countries, including India, theworld’s third largest garment exporter, and China, thetop garment exporter.13For example, the Clean Clothes Campaign reportsthat a fire at Shree Jee International, a footwearmanufacturing and export factory in Agra, India, killed43 workers and injured 11 workers on May 24, 2002.The factory produced shoes for UK brands.14According to the The Indian Express, on May 1,2009, at least six workers died and 30 workerswere injured in a fire at the Lakhani Shoe Factory inFaridabad, India.15 Lakhani Shoes is India’s largestexporter of canvas and vulcanized shoes and beachslippers.16China Labor Watch reports that five workers werekilled in a deadly fire on August 29, 2009, at theRegina Miracle Factory, a women’s undergarmentfactory in Shenzhen, China. The group had earlierreported on sweatshop conditions at this factory,which produced for international brands.17 Chinesepress reported at the time of the fire that the ReginaMiracle Factory was part of the world’s largestmanufacturer of women’s undergarments.18In Pakistan alone, we found at least a dozen garmentor shoe factory fires reported in the media since2004.19Consumers, apparel brands and retailers,governments, and everyone else who has a stakein the global apparel industry must now accept andconfront another deadly secret. Factory fires thatkill the workers who make the clothes we wear arenot the product of exceptional circumstances. Theyare not isolated examples of especially greedy ornegligent owners or corrupt government officials.These are not freak accidents that strike like naturaldisasters with nobody responsible, or the result ofother quirky circumstances of far away places thatare beyond our comprehension. Instead, deadlyfires are the inevitable product of an industryfounded on the idea of underpaid and disposableworkers.Along with abundant low-cost apparel, the industryregularly churns out poverty wages, exhaustingworking hours, and abusive working conditions thatgradually rob workers of their health and vitality,and, sometimes, produces dramatic deadly eventslike fires and building collapses. The unhealthyconditions of the everyday life of garment workersare largely invisible in the world of consumers,causing nobody much concern or discomfort, butthe deadly fires sometimes flare up in the media,shocking us out of our acquiescence.Deadly fires are the inevitableproduct of an industryfounded on the idea ofunderpaid and disposableworkers.We must now be open to a different perspectiveon deadly factory fires. The problem of the fires isnot just a Bangladeshi problem, or just a problemof the major garment exporting nations. Instead,the problem lies not very far from home, if home issomewhere among the major apparel consumercenters of the world. Now that the horrors of themost recent deadly fires in Pakistan and BangladeshDEADLY SECRETS10

have jolted our conscience and opened a space foraction towards a safer world for garment workers,everyone concerned should walk through thatopening and seize the opportunity to rethink theindustry.The setting for this report is Bangladesh and thebasis for the proposals for change are the inhumaneconditions of millions of Bangladeshi garmentworkers. But reports based on other settingswould yield the same conclusions, namely, that thebest model for real fire safety in the global apparelindustry is one founded on respect for workers.Real fire safety means workers are free to reporton dangers in their own workplace and have theability to negotiate better conditions; they have avoice that cannot be ignored. It also means that thelarge apparel buyers share their private knowledgeabout workplace hazards with workers and acceptresponsibility for their safety.Real fire safety means workersare free to report on dangersin their own workplace andhave the ability to negotiatebetter conditions; theyhave a voice that cannot beignored. It also means thatthe large apparel buyersshare their private knowledgeof workplace hazardswith workers and acceptresponsibility for their safety.DEADLY SECRETS11

Chapter 1: Garments ofPoverty or Threads -----------------------------------improve.24 Yet, poverty remains stark, especially inthe cities. As of 2009, some 70% of Bangladesh’surban population lived in slums where only one-fifthof households have access to adequate sanitation.25Access to safe drinkable water is deteriorating. Inthe city of Chittagong, the second largest city inBangladesh, more than 17% of households’ water hastested positive for unsafe levels of arsenic.26“The industry is growing so fast nowbut we are failing our garment workers.We can build huge multi-story factoriesbut we can’t ensure they meet basichealth and safety standards.”--Khondaker Golam Moazzem, senior research fellowat the Dhaka-based Center for Policy Dialogue, afterthe fire at That’s It Sportswear, December 14, ---------------------------------Bangladesh is a country endowed with naturalbounty—rich agricultural lands, abundant water withthe world’s largest delta, and substantial reserves ofnatural gas and coal—but it is also one of the world’spoorest and most densely populated countries.Some 156 million people, equivalent to about half theU.S. population, live in an area the size of the stateof Iowa. Half the population lives on less than 1.25 aday, 84% on less than 2 a day.21 While the countryremains largely rural with 45% of Bangladeshisworking in agriculture, rural livelihoods are moretenuous than ever as farmers face frequent naturaldisasters and the growing threat of climate change.As a result, the cities are growing rapidly. Dhaka, thecapital, is expected to become world’s fourth largestcity with 22 million inhabitants by 2025.22 Fifty-fivepercent of the urban population is crowded togetherin only four cities.23According to the World Bank, Bangladesh has madeimpressive economic and social progress in thepast decade, despite frequent natural disasters.Poverty has declined from 49% of the population in2000 to 32% in 2010, life expectancy is up from 65.7years in 2002 to 68.9 years in 2012, and primaryschool enrollment and literacy rates continue toFor children, poverty is a particularly heavy burden.More than nine percent of children in the slums diebefore the age of five, the highest child mortality ratein any urban area in Asia. Nearly 40% of the childrenunder five are chronically malnourished, the thirdhighest rate in world. Only half of primary-schoolage children attend school. In Dhaka, nearly 14%of children between the ages of five to 14 are childlaborers.27 The International Labour Organizationestimates that there are seven million child workersoverall in Bangladesh and that 1.3 million of themwork in hazardous sectors.28Path to growthThe Bangladeshi government has long seenthe export-oriented garment industry asBangladesh’s ticket out of poverty. A few shortyears after independence in 1971, Bangladeshbegan to take steps towards a market economy,encouraging private enterprise and investment anddenationalizing public industries. The private sectorhas developed unevenly, with major portions of thebanking and jute sectors still under governmentcontrol.29 But the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) intextiles and clothing, in effect from 1974 to 2004,gave Bangladesh a chance to develop a garmentexport industry. The MFA placed export limits ongarment producing nations such as Korea, HongKong, China and India, forcing importers to findadditional sourcing locations.According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturersand Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh’sfirst exports of ready-made garments in 1978 wereworth 12,000.30 The ready-made garment industryhas grown steadily for more than 30 years. TodayBangladesh is the world’s second largest exporterof apparel with 19.1 billion of exports in 2011-2012.31DEADLY SECRETS12

Orders from western brands and retailers, suchas Walmart, H&M, JC Penney, Zara, Tesco, Gap,Kohl’s, Marks and Spencer, G-Star, and Li & Fungflood into Bangladesh’s low-cost garment sectorat ever increasing rates. The ready-made garmentindustry now accounts for 13% of the country’s grossdomestic product and over 78% of total exports with5,000 factories employing 3.6 million workers.32Indirect employment is estimated at around 10 millionpeople.33 Some 59% of Bangladesh’s garmentexports go to the European Union, 26% to the U.S.,and 5% to Canada.34Orders from western brandsand retailers, such asWalmart, H&M, JC Penney,Zara, Tesco, Gap, Kohl’s,Marks and Spencer, G-Star,and Li & Fung flood intoBangladesh’s low-costgarment sector at everincreasing rates.Most analysts and observers believe substantialadditional growth is likely. According to a WorldBank analysis, future growth will be driven bylarger demand for lower cost garments in theU.S. and European markets.35 Apparel makers inBangladesh expect to reach the 30 billion exportmark within the next three years.36 Major apparelretailers and brands also expect continued growthof the Bangladeshi ready-made garment sector. AMcKinsey & Company survey of U.S. and Europeanchief purchasing officers of apparel companies thattogether represent 66% of total Bangladeshi exportsto the U.S. and Europe shows that leading apparelcompanies expect to decrease production in Chinaand increase production in Bangladesh in the nextfive years.The reason for decreasing sourcing in China, saysLi & Fung, one of Walmart’s top suppliers, is thatwages for Chinese garment workers rose by 40%in 2010 and up to 30% in 2011, and that Chinesegarments may be 15% more expensive in 2012compared to 2011.37 Bangladesh, with the region’syoungest and cheapest labor force, a huge capacitywith 5,000 factories, and long-term experience inthe sector, is ideally positioned to benefit f

DEADLY SECRETS 5 two brothers, and I have my parents. ILRF: And are you the oldest, or the middle or the youngest? Lovely: I'm the second one of five. ILRF: Talk with me about why you went to work in the factory. Lovely: I'm from a poor family, and I didn't have enough money to go to school. And my parents couldn't afford to send me to school.